El uso del cine en la política indigenista mexicana: El cine del Instituto Nacional Indigenista (INI) de su primera etapa (1956–70)

Abstract

This article studies the cinema produced by the National Indigenist Institute (INI) in its initial stage (1956–70), to investigate how this institution used the moving image to promote its agendas. Through an analysis of the discursive and formal characteristics of the three films produced during that era (Nuevos horizontes, Arenas [1956] 2010; Todos somos mexicanos, Arenas [1958] 2008; and Misión de Chichimecas, López [1970] 2008), I show how an audio-visual rhetoric was configured in which the voice-over expresses the guidelines of the indigenista policy, but also opens up a space for the self-expression of the indigenous characters and for their languages. Likewise, I underline the specificity of the INI’s cinema during this early period in the wider context of Mexican cinema and in relation to different filmic representations of indigenous people.